Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Open Blueprint Companies

Author:Chris Rasch
Posted:9/14/2000; 10:01:45 AM
Topic:Open Blueprint Companies
Msg #:21318 (In response to 20531)
Prev/Next:21317 / 21319

Hi Joel,

There's a discussion of corporate openness on the ArsDigita web/db boards [http://www.arsdigita.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0007n2] that may be of interest to you. Here's an excerpt from one of my posts from that discussion...

"...several companies have demonstrated that you can achieve much higher levels of profitability and better working environments by sharing corporate financial information with employees. [http://www.incmag.com/research/details/0,3470,CNT49_RSC15847,00.html] For example, Whole Foods is the largest natural food chain in the U.S., with 1.39 billion in annual revenues (1998).[http://www.fastcompany.com/online/02/team1.html] It operates 108 stores in 22 states plus the District of Columbia with total square footage of nearly 2.8 million square feet.[http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/000322/tx_whole_f_1.html] It has been on Fortune Magazine's list of Top 100 Places to Work for the past 3 years [http://library.northernlight.com/PN20000105060000072.html?cb=13&sc=0#doc]. Whole Foods shares all of the corporate information with all of it's employees--including individual salaries.

"...Whole Foods supports teamwork with a wide-open financial system. It collects and distributes information to an extent that would be unimaginable almost anywhere else. Sensitive figures on store sales, team sales, profit margins, even salaries, are available to every person in every location. In fact, the company shares so much information so widely that the SEC has designated all 6,500 employees "insiders" for stock-trading purposes....

"....How better to promote trust ( both among team members and between members and leaders ) than to eliminate a major source of distrust -- misinformed conjecture about who makes what? So every Whole Foods store has a book that lists the previous year's salary and bonus for all [1996] 6,500 employees --by name...."






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